Art

Tracey Emin - Love Is What You Want

Lauren Down | Monday 13 June, 2011 14:01

All photographys by David Levene, Courtesy of The Hayward Gallery

Little remains unknown about Tracey Emin, as her life after all is the subject of her very public art works: from the drinking, the sobering, the parties, her travels from Margate to Spitalfields and the emotional trauma in between. Inextricable then she seems to have made art and life, her trademark quilts and signs embroidered with violent outbursts of hate and understated pans of sadness.

Whilst some still remain unconvinced by Emin’s particular brand of nostalgic, self-indulgent artistic explorations this major retrospective is easily her finest to date and one that might persuade even the harshest of critics.

Spanning the length and breadth of her career, ‘Love is What You Want’ is from the start expertly curated by Ralph Rugoff and Cliff Lauson. Matching the melodrama of the artists oeuvre with the layout of the exhibition, the pair have laid out some of Emin’s most famous works in and amongst lesser known, seldom seen pieces of painting, video and photography. Drenched in a pink a hue, ‘Knowing My Enemy’ – a partially collapsed pier – stands tall in the main room, looking over her famous blanket confessionals as the neon light flickers.

Soon we are lead down a dark corridor, with the black walls framing her luminescent neon signs that blaze in lavender purple, bright pink, blue, white and green.

As the Western Cowboy inspired film plays out at the end of the room, the entire exhibition is awash in its soundtrack as the lights static fizzes underneath. The sexually provocative and fiercely feminist artists has also created new outdoor sculptures especially for the Hayward Gallery.

Until 29 August.
The Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo, SE1 8XX
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/tracey
0207 960 4200

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